City loses 3rd ethnic event as Tet Festival is canceled

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GARDEN GROVE A months-long dispute between a group of Vietnamese-American students and city officials over the future of the city's largest ethnic celebration has come to an abrupt end, sending organizers searching for a new location and leaving the city without one of its marquee events.

The Tet Festival of Southern California has been canceled after contract talks between Garden Grove leaders and the Union of the Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California broke down this week. The annual celebration of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year had been held in Garden Grove Park and was considered the largest event of its kind outside of Vietnam. It had been scheduled for Jan. 31 to Feb. 2.

Still, a leader of the student nonprofit group said the popular event will move forward – with a new location.

“The Tet Festival will continue to happen,” said Nina Tran, the UVSA president, declining to speculate on where the festival could be held next year. The nonprofit event has generated more than $1 million for Southern California charities in its last 11 years, the Student Associations said.

Westminster City Manager Eddie Manfro said the group called on Wednesday to inquire about moving the festival there, although a specific location wasn't discussed. A special-event permit would need City Council approval.

“The city has never felt we have a venue large enough,” Manfro said. “We haven't given it any kind of thorough analysis. We assumed discussions between Garden Grove and the association would work out.”

The festival, born in 1994, attracts more than 100,000 attendees over three days.

Talks began in July and at times were emotionally charged, with UVSA members claiming city officials were attempting to unfairly raise permit fees. City officials contended they had subsidized a majority of the event's cost for years.

“It's sad, disappointing and a real blow to both the Vietnamese community and the city of Garden Grove,” said Dan Jacobson, a Tustin resident who regularly attends the festival. “I think the Vietnamese students have gone the extra mile to try and get this thing done. And the city is not allowing the festival. It shows, to me, the city is falling down to its responsibility to itself and the community.”

City officials said in a statement that UVSA members rejected their final proposal, which called for a one-year agreement and a $145,000 payment to the city to cover costs associated with hosting the festival on public space. The city had received $30,000 a year.

The city also asked the group to comply with state and federal financial reporting laws. Questions were raised about financial accountability, and where funds generated by the event were donated. City officials claimed that many payment-transaction records required to go to the city were lost by the nonprofit group or not created.

“The request for transparency is not that difficult,” Councilman Chris Phan said. “It's a matter of willing to do it. I don't see the hardship.”

An accountant chosen by the Student Associations and hired by the city found that less than half of the $1.5 million in revenue taken in from the event from 2010 to 2012 was documented, according to an audit report supplied to the Register by the city under a public-records act request.

Despite the city's claims about a lack of financial transparency, Tran said financial documents were supplied to the city.

“At this point we hope the city is going to come to their senses,” she said. “This is for the community. Regardless, there will be a festival.”

The Tet Festival is the third ethnic celebration to either move from Garden Grove or be canceled. Korean Festival organizers moved this year's event to Buena Park, while organizers of the Arab-American Festival canceled because of ongoing tension in the Middle East.

The dispute with Tet Festival organizers comes in the wake of an effort by city officials to negotiate new operating contracts with all of the festivals' organizers to offset increased city costs associated with hosting the events. Hosting the Tet Festival cost the city more than $100,000 each year in police and support services.

“It really pains me that under our watch we've lost three of the four festivals in our city,” Phan said. “However, I think accountability and transparency is paramount to any contract the city gets into with any entity.”

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